Post Your Food Photos !

Robin recently told me that this new forum is Web 2.0, which means it has lots of room for photos, video clips etc. I thought it might be nice to start a thread similar to Cynthia's Life in Pictures one, only based around food, where we could post food photos ? Sometimes it's fun to take pretty pictures, but too laborious to have to write up a recipe, so if that's the case, post your pictures here. Grab your cameras, friends, and show us what's happening in your kitchens !

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I'm starting an experiment in making my own vanilla extract. I've put a split Tahitian vanilla bean into 125ml (half a cup) of vodka. This picture is day 1.

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Celie, post the recipe for those cookies, please! I can see them at our next holiday family gathering.

Robert, it's just a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, but instead of 2 cups of choc chips, I used 2 cups made up of a mix of dark choc bits, dried cranberries and chopped up dried persian figs, which I'd rehydrated in Chivas Regal (as you do ).

Celia, I love this idea.
These were samples of a new line of beef my company is carrying, which I was assigned to try last night.

Vintage Beef:

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Nice idea Celia. A few recent dishes:


Ma Po Doufu


Lemon sole, Aussie mountain pepper spice, carrot, parsley butter, garlic chips
&
Halibut, quatre épices rub, Port-poached figs


I call it "Pepper, pita, feta" (stuffed peppers, deep fried pita, feta sorbet) - a good vegetarian dish combo for red wine if the acidity is high enough in the stuffing.

Celia, I'm interested to know what kind of flour(s) you're using for your sourdough? I've been trying to get a similar open-texture to yours (I'm aiming for a pain de campagne kind of texture) but not really managing it (been blending flours to obtain different protein and gluten contents).

Dinner:



Dessert:



rwj

Gorgeous photos ! John, how old is "vintage" steak ? I've always been told we eat our steak far to young, and the best meat has been "hung" by butchers to age before cutting.

Ben, wow, do you eat like that all the time ? Re the sourdough, I just used standard white bread flour, with a little (less than a tsp) of ground malt added. I think that providing you use a high protein bread flour, getting holes in the loaf is less about the flour, and more about the handling and hydration of the dough. You won't get holes unless the dough is quite wet (my recipe is about 75% hydration). In this case, the dough was wetter than usual (this batch of flour just seems to be coming out like that), and the holes were bigger than I normally get. The other thing is handling - a lot of current thinking is that the dough should be handled gently and folded at intervals to achieve that open texture. In this case though, I made the dough up and let it rise overnight, so the holes were very much a product of the starter and the long rise.

If you can get hold of Dan Lepard's book The Handmade Loaf (he's a UK baker), it's very instructive, particularly on sourdoughs. Also, some info here and here. (Oh, and Dan's a former Aussie living in the UK. Sound familiar ? )

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Well, we were at the local Persian "13 bedar" celebration last weekend and had kabobs coming out of our ears ... as prepared by an equally local Mexican caterer!

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Nice idea Celia. A few recent dishes:


Ma Po Doufu

Ben,

This is probably my favourite dish for a cold, damp Winter's night. Best one I've had was in Adelaide. Mine is still a work in progress.

Celia, thanks for the info. The flour is significant because of the role the gluten plays in the elasticity and the "stretchability" of the dough, which can result in a more or less open texture. I assume the flour you're using is 100% Australian wheat in which case it would be pretty strong. Flours in the UK tend to be blends of British and imported (e.g. Canadian) wheat which are intended to give the classic British bread's closed, homogeneous, aerated texture. I've been combining strong flour (high protein/gluten) and "weaker" (lower protein) flour. I agree that the water content is important too though, and could be the critical point for me. I've been experimenting with batches between 65% and 75% so maybe I was just a little too low, or maybe my handling has been too rough. Thanks for the links - the first in particular looks like it will help.

Nayan, I feel the same way: Ma Po Doufu is perfect for a cold winter's (or frozen wet spring's ) night. I'm still exploring techniques to make it too.

Robert, cool presentation of that dessert!

I'll PM you, Ben, or this photo post will turn into a bread post..

Blueberries.



rwj

I LOVE blueberries, Cowboy. They cost a fortune here...

I am completely addicted to these ! Persian figs which I've rehydrated in Drambuie. Life is good....

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This week in chat, Cynthia taught me how to make rye bread that doesn't come out like a brick. I took her flour proportions and adapted it to my overnight sourdough recipe. Note to Ben, it was a heavy dough, and consistent with our discussion, it doesn't have any holes. Pete asked me to make a rye and cranberry loaf, which is what the one in front is.

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Celia, your bread texture looks about right, but it's a lot lighter in color than mine. Did you use molasses?


I present... the humble oatmeal cookie... with semi-sweet chocolate chunks, dried cherries, and just a touch of cinnamon.



I needed a comfort food fix after a long day at the office.

Cynthia, that looks DELICIOUS. But why, oh why, is there only one on your plate ?

I just took your proportions from memory for the rye bread (2.5c rye, 1.5c wholemeal, .5 cup white bakers flour), and used it in place of my standard all white bakers flour. Did I get it right ? I didn't add any sweetener to my bread (well, except for the cranberries), and it's a very nice sandwich bread. If you could still post your recipe, I'd be grateful..thanks !

Um... I ate the other two.

I'll post that recipe up tonight, Celia!

Thanks, girlfriend. Make sure you post the recipe with that wonderful photo of your toasted cheese sandwich (though knowing you, you'll probably have an even better pic). I have to say, I've been eating a lot of toasted cheese sambos since you posted that picture.

Not quite a toasted cheese sandwich but close: Welsh Rabbit with Whole Wheat Stout Bread. I made this for a beer tasting at the cooking school a couple of weeks back.



rwj

Stop it ! Now I'm going to have to have melted cheese on toast for lunch...

Stop it ! Now I'm going to have to have melted cheese on toast for lunch...

That would be melted cheese, eggs, and beer on toast! YUM and go for it!

rwj

I have a unorthodox Croque Monsieur in the oven right now. Focaccia with bechamel, Italian prosciutto, semi-dried tomato, and topped with more bechamel and romano cheese.

Um... I ate the other two.

I wouldn't have been able to hold back long enough to take a picture of the last one!